


christmas has me feeling extra santa-mental

by ryanwolfe



Series: happy hollifics [6]
Category: CSI: Miami
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Grocery Store, Artist!Ryan, Artists, Baker!Ryan, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, First Kiss, Gen, Grocery Shopping, Grocery Store, Holidays, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Pining, Secret Admirer, Single Parents, Strangers to Lovers, Two Person Love Triangle, Widower!Eric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:22:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28298919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryanwolfe/pseuds/ryanwolfe
Summary: Eric is a widower with two young children who takes up working at the grocery store in order to gain more money to buy Christmas presents. His night shift usually entails of the handsome man who he can't stop ogling and the mystery of a secret admirer who keeps leaving him drawings.(aka eric is a tired dad who just wants to do his job but someone keeps distracting him)
Relationships: Eric Delko/Original Female Character(s), Eric Delko/Ryan Wolfe
Series: happy hollifics [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2055936
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	christmas has me feeling extra santa-mental

**Author's Note:**

> why did i write another story with single parent eric?
> 
> hope you like this, just a night time story of falling in love at a grocery store
> 
> also it's like a whole different dimension when you shop at night, it's like more quieter and it's kinda nice honestly
> 
> tumblr [@brandtwilliam](https://brandtwilliam.tumblr.com/) \- hit me up anytime
> 
> eric's son rafael is named after barba from svu cause he's my favorite and he's coming back on the show! so i had to throw in a little nod to him.
> 
> (also, had to throw in a ts evermore reference at the end, tell me what's your favorite song off the album if you listened to it? i have to say it's definitely cowboy like me)

The first day of December arrives in a flurry of chaos and grumpiness.

With two kids under four, Eric is drowning under the weight of thoughts like, how am I going to pay the bills, or how will I afford gifts for the children.

Along with the woes of money trouble, it will be the first Christmas without his late wife, which just adds onto the grief he’s feeling for the holidays. She’s gonna miss their daughter’s first visit to Santa, or the fact their son will be receiving his first bike under the tree.

In an attempt to gain more money, Eric takes a second job at the grocery store. The only one available is the night shift, which works in his favor, so long as Calleigh can stay over to watch the kids then.

It’s a nightmare for the first week.

In between trying to get sleep between his jobs, he has to deal with the kids’ reaction to this new change, while balancing the regular tasks of being a single parent.

In times like this, Eric really misses having a partner. Someone who can take over when he’s feeling out of it, someone to rolls his eyes at when Rafael insists that he can put his shoes on even though he fails every time. Someone who’s willing to get up to comfort Camilla when Eric doesn’t want to wake up.

He pushes down all the sadness because he doesn’t have time for it, and it’s already hard enough when his kids are throwing tantrums about their mother.

It’s been almost a year since she was gone, and even though things didn’t work on between the two of them, Eric still misses her.

Their relationship was a whirlwind of romance, that led to Rafael and a quick marriage. Once they got floated out of the honeymoon stage, they soon realized that they both were better off as friends.

They stayed in their marriage, deciding to stay together for the sake of their children.

Camilla was adopted after one of their friends died in childbirth and they took in the little girl, who quickly wormed her way into their heart.

His wife is diagnosed with cancer soon after and everything falls apart.

Months of treatments and hospital bills drag on slowly, the torture piercing through Eric’s heart, because while there’s no romantic feelings between them, Jennifer has become his best friend, his partner in life, and it hurts watching her die slowly.

He shoves away those memories, locking them in his heart as he gets ready for another long shift at the grocery store.

//

It’s in the second week of his shift when Eric begins to notice a pattern.

A couple times during the week, a young man appears at the store, usually at night, correlating with Eric’s shift.

The first time Eric sees him, he’s been assigned to stock the shelfs in the cereal aisle.

Eric’s stuck shoving boxes of Frosted Flake, the image of Tony the tiger slowly burning into his mind when a hand appears in his peripheral vision.

He looks up and meets muddy green eyes, both of them frozen as they take in each other.

Along with the muddy green eyes, there’s spiky honey brown hair, scruffy stubble lining a sharp jawline, and what looks to be a streak of blue paint across the forehead.

The man coughs and breaks eye contact, gaze darting back to the variety of cereal, and Eric looks away with a flush on his face.

What is he doing? He’s a widower with two young children, working at the grocery store on top of his regular job in order to afford Christmas presents for aforementioned kids, and apparently ogling a handsome stranger in the aisle during his shift.

The man doesn’t seem to notice, too preoccupied with choosing a cereal, so Eric takes his fill, eyes running down the man’s lanky form, cataloguing the subtle muscular forearms, strong thick thighs, and long fingers caressing the boxes.

Never has Eric ever been jealous of a cereal box.

He’s too busy daydreaming about the man that he almost doesn’t notice when the man takes his leave, Eric’s eyes watching as the man walks away, the perfect view of his ass on display.

Of course it’s then that one of the boxes of cereal falls and smacks him in the face.

Curse the man and his good looks.

//

Eric doesn’t really get to see the man as much after that.

He gets peaks here and there, the blur of his body exiting the store, the top of that spiky hair that seems soft and Eric kind of wants to run his hands through it.

Green muddy eyes that lock with his for a brief moment before they dart away, that perfect firm ass when the man picks up something he drops.

Eric wonders whether he’s going crazy when those eyes and those fingers begin appear in his dreams.

//

By the third week, Eric is promoted to working at the register, usually sitting around waiting for customers to ring their weird purchases.

(It’s the night shift, and people who come out to buy stuff at night always pick out the weirdest stuff. One time a guy just dumped a pineapple on the belt and a huge bottle of hot sauce. Eric had asked and the man told him that he lost a bet with his roommate, so now he has to eat a whole pineapple drizzled with hot sauce. Eric barely managed to keep his composure as he rang up the items.)

It’s in the second hour of his shift when he notices the drawing taped under the counter.

Eric had originally been reaching down to try to grab more bags, because he was running low and accidentally brushed against paper.

He crouched down, his phone in hand with the flashlight setting on and found a drawing taped underneath.

Gently tugging it out, Eric crawled out and collapsed onto his stool, pulling the drawing closer to his eyes.

It’s a sketch, specifically a sketch of him, decking out in a holiday sweater, and a Santa hat pulled over his head.

Underneath in scribbly handwriting, it’s captioned, _“deck the halls”_.

The drawing is really good, he even looks like him, down to the eyebags he’s sporting after a hard time sleeping because Cami had to stay home from school with a fever.

Eric restrains himself from looking around and tampers down the blush he’s sure it on his face.

//

The drawings begin appearing every shift he works.

At this point, he starts checking his work station before beginning his shift.

Sometimes, they’re there to greet him.

Sometimes, they appear when he takes a break during the shift, perfectly timed when Eric steps away for a brief moment.

And sometimes, they’re sneakily taped at the end of his shift, when he’s putting his time card in the break room.

The smiles he gets from them stay with him even after he goes home. It does nothing to stop the crush he’s slowly having for the mysterious artist.

//

Along with the drawings, Eric’s blessed with the handsome man showing up often at the grocery store.

He’s begun showing up to ring his purchases at Eric’s register and even though neither one has exchanged words other than the necessary politeness society has impacted upon, shy smiles light up his shift.

The man is unfairly adorable and absolutely gorgeous up close, and Eric greedily takes every moment he can to soak up these interactions.

In terms of late night shopping, the man often alternates on the spectrum.

Some days he will be normal and buy regular groceries. Eric has taken notice that usually there’s a lot of baking supplies, flour, baking powder, cream, and milk. Those are the days where the man sports flour on his face, and Eric thinks that a grown man cannot be this cute in front of him.

Other days the items on the belt will range from abnormally shaped fruits to multiple boxes of cereal, and one time, the man just slammed a box of brightly colored tampons on the counter, gaze on Eric like he was challenging him to say something about it.

The man usually has paint on him during those times, and it’s very hot that Eric struggles not to drool.

//

By the time Winter break rolls around, Eric has made enough money that he can quit his grocery store job, having succeed in being able to purchase enough gifts to compensate the void his wife left in their lives.

Unfortunately that means no more drawings at his work station and no more late night adventures with the handsome eccentric man.

It all comes to a head when Eric arrives earlier for his last shift, and he notices movement at his work station.

It’s the handsome man, it’s him, crouched under the counter, carefully taping a drawing on the surface, a strip of paint against his tan skin, and flour peeking in his hair.

Eric takes off into a sprint, colliding into the man and causing the both of them to spray across the floor, the man pinned underneath Eric’s body, and isn’t that just a great thought?

“You! It’s you!” His mouth blurts out and immediately Eric blushes.

The man just looks amused, an eyebrow cocked and that should not be hot, considering the man was just caught red handed.

“Yes, it’s me,” the man dryly utters. His eyes looks even more beautiful, face a breath away from Eric’s and he quickly gets lost in them.

“Are you going to let me up then?” His voice cuts through and Eric wants to burst into flames. He stutters and babbles an apology, gracelessly hauling up and reaching out to pull the man up.

The man side steps him, reaching out to grab the drawing and shove in into Eric’s hands.

There’s something different about the drawing this time. In this sketch, there are two men, one that is very obviously Eric, and the other is the man, Eric thinks, eyes widening.

It’s a rushed sketch, a mistletoe above them, and the man is kissing Eric.

Arms wrap around his body and turn him around, facing the man, who is now smiling somewhat nervously, his tongue peeking out to wet his lips. Eric’s eyes track its movement.

The man’s hand reaches up to rub nervously over the back of his neck and shrugs, a blush flaming against his cheeks. “I was wondering if you wanted to go out to dinner with me? Sorry if this seems kinda weird, but you are really handsome and I — oomph”

The rest of the sentence is cut off by Eric pressing his lips against the man, having run out of patience.

“Don’t need mistletoe for that,” Eric breaths out when they pull apart for air, and the man just huffs a chuckle out.

The holidays are looking up for him.

Tis’ the damn season indeed.


End file.
